A Match Made in Heaven Part 2

Still remember Elmo, the Blue-Masked Mutation lovebird which I also called Bibi? In earlier post I was determined that Elmo is a female because it acted out like a female lovebird in mating mode when it is around me. Especially if I pat its back. It would bend its body, spread its wings and lifted up its tail! Until one day... Elmo tried to mate my hand like a male lovebird!!! Now I admit that what experts had said is really true that all those early signs can be very...misleading!

Since the day I brought Olive home, I have tried to make her and Elmo friends.  Elmo hang out with Baby Blue and Goldie almost every day under my supervision but of course they have a huge gap because they're not the same species. 

So I wanted Elmo to have a same-species buddy.

Different from Elmo, since the beginning I was certain that Olive is a female. She is a Dutch-blue-mutation peach-faced lovebird. Beside the fact that they are different sex but they didn't seem to be attracted to each other. They even fought every time they played together. It's mostly Elmo who attacked her. I think Elmo was just being territorial.

Exploring new nest

So, I decided to match them. I moved them into one big cage which I used for the budgies and I housed the budgies into a new smaller cage fit for their size. I moved them in with great anticipation. Thank God they can get along pretty well. After sometime, I introduced them to a nest. I did this because Olive would always prey upon the budgies' nest and always tried to enter their cage and harass the keets. I knew it's mating season and she wanted a nest. 

Look how cute they were as they were exploring their new nest!

After sometime, they started to mate and Olive laid 4 eggs. She laid her first egg outside the nest. Coincidentally I was not home and by the time I was back, my mom reported that the egg was broken. And when I checked I saw a hole on the egg which probably caused by Elmo or Olive. Maybe they tried to move the egg, thus, accidentally 

broke the egg.

After a couple of days, she laid her second egg and so on. Then after about 26 days, her first egg was hatched and 5 days later the second chick was hatched. The third egg never hatched. It may not be fertilized so I removed it.

Today, the first chick is about 16 days old and the youngest is around 12 days old. I introduced them to hand-feeding today but only partially in the afternoon since the mother still feeding them. And I do not separate them from the parents. I don't want to encourage the parents to mate again by doing so.

Oh one thing that bothers me is the information I got from the internet saying that they are actually not the same species and thus should never be matched, as their offspring may be sterile and will have lots of health problems. I wished I knew this since the beginning but it's just waaaaayy ... too late! I can only wish for the best for these chicks! 

It looks like they inherrited the looks of their mother and probably the color too. Well, let's see how it turns out when they're fully grown! :-)

My Elmo is A Hen!

Recently, I have been convinced that Elmo is a hen. I bought her when she was about 2 or 3 months old (as the shopkeeper claimed). He said that Elmo is a male lovebird, but I guessed he didn't really know it as determining the sex of a lovebird is not as easy as determining the sex of parakeets. Unless, we take a DNA test.

There are some tips given by experts like seeing the shape of the tip of their wings or by feeling the gap in their abdomen. But it's tricky and often inaccurate.
The one you can count on except for a DNA test is waiting until they are about a year old. That means until they have reached full maturity.

I bought Elmo around March this year. If she were 2-3 months old by that time, she would be a year old or over now. That means she's now a mature lovebird who is ready for mating. Yep, she is indeed. She has shown the sign of maturity for several months now. Some says that they are mature when they are around 6 months old and will lay their first egg when around 8-12 months old.

With Elmo(Bibi), I noticed that she likes to eat the cuttlefish bone that I put in the budgies' cage and sometimes she has a fight with them because of that (usually either Baby Blue or Goldie will peck her for eating their cuttlefish bone). She is also very fascinated with Goldie's nest. When I first introduced the nest to the budgies, they would struggle the hell out of them  every time I put them inside the nest. But, it's different with Elmo, she volunteered herself to take a peep inside the nest through the window hole, and many times she dared herself to ventured further into the nest and out.

She's also a keeper (I think it's her instinct as a hen), every time Goldie or Baby Blue fell down from their cage or the outer perch(sometimes they can't fly back to their cage because I have trimmed the tip of their flying feathers), Elmo would accompany them. She would often make noises so I knew that something had happened to them!

Then lately, she started to make a lot of clicking noise every time she's around me. She will repeatedly nod her head and make the sign of regurgitating(vomiting to feed her owner, which she considers as her mate) as an expression of love. She will also dance around, and every time I want to pat her she will bent her body, spread her wings and lift her tail! It's an invitation to a male lovebird to ascend her! And I am a male lovebird to her! LOL!

So far Elmo hasn't laid any eggs, because I didn't put a nest in her cage. People says placing a nest inside their cage can stimulate egg-laying even without the presence of a male lovebird. I also haven't wanted to give her a male lovebird as a mate since egg-laying will changed my-already-tamed lovebird into a complete stranger.